Singapore, Feb 04, 2010: ChrysCapital India, India Value Fund and Nexus Venture Partners were adjudged as India’s leading Private Equity/Venture Capital firms for 2009 at the latest Venture Intelligence APEX Awards. Among corporate law firms, ALMT Legal and Desai & Diwanji topped the Venture Intelligence League Tables as the Most Active Legal Advisors for Private Equity and M&A deals respectively in 2009, while Ernst & Young topped the League Tables as the Most Active Transaction Advisor (PE and M&A) for the year.

 

The awards were given away as part of Venture Intelligence APEX ‘10, the annual conclave of the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry held in Mumbai recently. Mr. Ajay Piramal, Chairman of the Piramal Group was the chief guest of the function.

 

ChrysCapital and India Value Fund are receiving the APEX Awards for the second time, having earlier won the awards in 2007 and 2006 respectively. Accepting the “Best Private Equity Firm-2009” Award on behalf of ChrysCapital, Ashish Dhawan, Senior Managing Director, said “The last time we won the award was a great year for the PE industry. However, 2009 has been a challenging year for PE funds globally as well as in India and to bag this award again in such an environment means a lot to us at ChrysCapital.” Accepting the “Best Private Equity Firm-Midmarket-2009” Award on behalf of India Value Fund, the firm’s CEO Vishal Nevatia, said “While success in PE can be evaluated only over 15-20 years, such awards motivate the team to continue their journey and quest for excellence.”

 

Receiving the “Best Venture Capital Firm-2009” Award from Matthew Clark, Senior Director-Startup Engagement, Microsoft, Nexus Venture Partners Managing Directors Sandeep Singhal and Suvir Sujan said, “It is an acknowledgement of our investing values. We will continue to back passionate entrepreneurs with transformational ideas and provide them an ecosystem that can help them scale their companies and take them global”.

 

The APEX fund awardees are chosen by a Jury Panel consisting exclusively of Limited Partners (i.e., investors in PE/VC funds). The jury members for the APEX’10 Fund Awards included executives from Adams Street Partners, Asia Alternatives, CDC Group, Gartmore, GIC, SEDCO, Siguler Guff and Squadron Capital. The Venture Intelligence League Tables, the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on volume of PE and M&A transactions advised by Transaction and Legal Advisory firms during the calendar year. The League Tables are compiled based on transactions submitted by the advisory firms and filtered using Venture Intelligence definitions.